Huntin’ Snipers

Since I recently noticed an upswing in sniper-existence-related arguments on the forum (even in topics not really related to sniping) I thought I would share this little tale from last summer. I do not intend to argue the existence or non-existence of snipers in paintball, I just want to share with the pro-sniper crowd an example of why many woodsball players have trouble taking snipers seriously and why some react with such vehemence when the topic comes up. As a disclaimer, I feel it necessary to say that I realize not all paintball snipers out there play in this manner, but, from my experience, the majority do.

Last summer, I was on the defending team in a single flag game and was securing the far left flank. There were boundaries directly behind the flag bunker and within 30 yards on the right so it was a very defensable position. Each team had about 20 players and most of the action was occuring between the right boundary and the center front of our defensive line. This was fine with me; I had chosen my position because it was late in the day and my back and knee were bothering me and I had no desire to doing anything more active than fire a few shots to herd stragglers back toward the main firefight.

I was sprawled behind a bush, leaning back against a comfortable old log, holding my r/t equipped 98C with 12" J&J when I saw them through the bushes. It was the two guys in full ghillie that I had noticed arriving just a few games earlier but had not yet encountered on the field. They were each armed with some type of fancy mil-sim set-up (complete with "silencers" and bipods) and running remote lines to their tanks. One was quiet when they arrived, but the other one was in full "uber-sniper", smack-talking form. They were moving across a wide open area toward my position like a pair of large mobile shrubberies. The first thing that came to my mind was the Monty Python quote, "Bring me a shrubbery!" I let them get fairly close, then opened up on them. Although I hit both, I could see no breaks. This brings me to the first problem many people have with snipers:

• If you wear gear that makes it impossible to break paint on you even at close range (or see any potential breaks), have the courtesy to call yourself out when hit. Otherwise we could all wrap ourselves in packing foam and bubble wrap and never have to get out.
  

They retreated to the center of the open area, out of my effective range and hunkered down to return fire at my position. Since they were no longer moving, apparently they thought their ghillie rendered them invisible. The truth was they looked like two large green lumps of mold on a backdrop of brown wheat bread. This is point two:

• If you're going to wear a ghillie suit, use it correctly.

I let them see me and amused myself by making them waste their paint shooting at me from out of range (at least a hopper each). Usually just showing myself or waving at them was enough to keep them shooting, but when they showed signs of getting bored, I would point my marker in their direction while considering point three:

• Snipers (actually all paintball players) should know the effective range of their markers.

Finally, they decided to do something. One of them shifted toward my right and closer and opened up on me while the other ran directly left. Since I knew the position of my other team members, I realized the one who was covering me had gotten to a position where he would get lit up if he moved on me. (He probably wouldn't get eliminated, but he would get chased back.)  I decided to ignore him and go after the other one.  I let him see me move to my right and allowed him to shoot at me and pin me down behind a large bush. Then, while he industriously shredded the bush with hundreds of rounds, I slid backwards to lower ground and crawled in the direction his buddy had gone. Once I had effective cover and concealment safely between us, I moved quickly in a crouch to where I thought his friend would come in through. This is point four:

• Blind firing a butt-load of rounds at maximum effective range at where you think the enemy is, is not sniping (nor is it effective cover fire.)

I reached my chosen cover and spotted the other sniper immediately. He was crawling across open terrain in a manner that reminded me of the movie "The Blob" (the 50s version with Steve McQueen). This is point five:

• Ghillied snipers should be stationary; innocent bushes do not normally deploy on other players. Conversely, if you have to cross an open area, there is no point in crawling if you're going to be seen anyway.

I had to crawl to the next bush to be in optimum position. I crouched as close to the bush as I could and waited. (Any outside observer would have assumed I had some type of plant fetish and was victimizing the poor scrub growth.) I should point out that I was not ghillied; I was wearing tiger stripes and had a few pieces of camo net material attached to my mask to break up the outline.

Finally, the mobile shrub passed on the other side of my cover.  As he got up to a crouch, I leaned out and layed my barrel on his right shoulder and asked him if he wanted to call out or if I needed to shoot him. He called out and left in disgust. This would be point six:

• Real snipers set traps, they don't generally walk into them. (Especially not traps set by someone who is probably over twice their age and is not in nearly as good shape.)

After this guy called out and left in disgust, I circled out to get a shot at his partner. Before I could get to him he was eliminated. I did however, get in a good position to watch several players, who were apparently frustrated that he wouldn't call out, bunker him at a range that guaranteed the paint would break and shoot him enough that you could see the breaks through the ghillie. This would be my final point:

• Bad things happen to "snipers" who use their ghillie to make themselves bullet-proof.
  

Edited by Mack - 23 December 2006 at 5:25pm

tallen702 wrote: You know what I've found? My blaze-red jersey, red mask, red (and now silver) markers, and all the shiny chrome and whatnot on them don't make me that much easier to see in the woods. I can still ambush, still stay concealed. I've also found that having a speedball mentality in woodsball means that while I tend to got shot out most rounds, I take a lot more guys with me than your typical cammo, sit and wait, player does. A lot of people don't think you can get bunkered in a castle... man are they wrong.

Actually they are a dead giveaway

But you are very right about the speedball mentality.

i started doing stuff like that a few times ago and i have had so much more fun. I also am well recognized as a good player at my field now.

I never have been one to beleive in camo, sure it might help you out, but you are not invisible in the trees. Since we don't have alot of paintball traffic down here any chance I get to play I take, and have seen quite the array of players myself. I used to wear jeans and a grey longsleeved shirt with red mechanics gloves. With a sale paintball-discounters had, my brother and I both picked jerseys, mine is the tippmann one with no numbers or lettering, and his is an evil likewise. Since we both have played quite a bit and my brother has taught me to play, we are recognized as the two best players when we play. He has a fairly old ICD bushamster 2000, 1999 or 98ish. While I support myself with my 98 custom. People just look at us and want us on their team. We now play so that we are always seperated, except a game of alamo we played.
     What I'm trying to get at is that how your dressed and the gun you carry can play a big role in how people think of you sometimes.    

Barn_user,

I agree that the way you dress dramatically impacts the way that you are precieved as a player.

I wore my Marine Corps issue cammies the last time I played paintball. People would just look at me and want me on their team, once I played and did well everybody wanted me on their team...

I agree with carl... the camo does sometimes help.  Of course, not always, but an all yellow or red mask or even black mask is much easier to see than one that "has the outline broken up" as Mack said or simply the diverse colors, and at least some of which will blend in with the surroundings.

What a great post, honestly.  This could not be more true.

On camo: it's not always necessary, it doesn't help if you play like you aren't in camo.  Camo is the next step once you know how to trick your opponent's eyes.

On staying concealed:  The 3 things I've figured out about staying hidden are:

1.) The human eye is attracted to movement.  STAY VERY STILL if someone is looking at you and does not know you are there.  I watched as an opposing player walked straight toward a friend and I, making it to about 10' from us befor we opened up.  I was decently concealed, but my friend was almost out in the open, behind a few thin trees and branches.  The target didn't see us because we didn't move an inch from the moment we saw him a few minutes ago.

2.) Black is just as bad as bright neon colours unless you are in a dark DARK shadow.  People with black guns, black masks, black belts, black bandanas, black co2/air tanks, gloves etc. etc. are much easier to pick out than people who opt for more neutral colours.  Another reason why my friend and I were not seen is because we both painted our guns and we both painted our masks.

3.)It's very easy to recognize a human shape.  Tuck in.  If you ever get shot anywhere besides the gun or the mask, you still need practice.  If you don't have very good cover, stay low and it'll be much harder to notice you.

And to finish it off, if you are staying hidden or ambushing somebody, don't fire until you absolutely NEED to fire.  Chances are your opponent will be in range for a long time, and until he's within 10 feet, or until he starts to move past you, don't waste your ammo unless you have a sure shot.

Rock Slide wrote: "If you wear gear that makes it impossible to break paint on you even at close range (or see any potential breaks), have the courtesy to call yourself out when hit. Otherwise we could all wrap ourselves in packing foam and bubble wrap and never have to get out. " If you can't make them say out, make them say ouch...  Rules are that if you are in a ghillie, the paint doesn't have to break. You just have to hit them.  They were out of the game at this point. These guys were apparently not aware of that rule. The mouthy one was initially resistant when I explained it to them later, but the field owner took care of it. "If you're going to wear a ghillie suit, use it correctly." This is the #1 problem with newbies in ghillies.  Total color mismatch. I've seen that a lot also, but in this case these guys were actually pretty close. (To be fair, the one who tried to pin me down did take a good covered/concealed postition to do it from, but that doesn't help when I watched him go there.) "Snipers (actually all paintball players) should know the effective range of their markers." I've seen "Old Soldier" stand in the middle of balls flying and not get hit. That's because everybody is long-balling. You can step out of the way of those. Effective range of a round projectile shot out of a smooth bore gun at 300fps is about 75ft. That's where you have a 50% chance of hitting a person. I hate those games. I especially hate when you close in on them and they run away so they can long-ball from somewhere else. (I've actually won several games because the less aggressive members of the opposing team ran away from their flag when we got to close.) "Blind firing a butt-load of rounds at maximum effective range at where you think the enemy is, is not sniping (nor is it effective cover fire.)" 3 to 5 round burst will keep somebody pinned down as well as a string of hundreds. Just make some noise on their bunker. I like to alternate one on the bunker with two in probable "pop-up" locations. "Ghillied snipers should be stationary; innocent bushes do not normally deploy on other players. Conversely, if you have to cross an open area, there is no point in crawling if you're going to be seen anyway." Movement is the first thing to catch your eye. It saved our ancestry from being eaten... It doesn't matter if you're in a ghillie, woodland camo, tigerstrip, or a pink bunny suit. I play with a guy that uses a bunny mask with big ears and tapes a huge cotton ball to his butt around Easter. "Real snipers set traps, they don't generally walk into them. (Especially not traps set by someone who is probably over twice their age and is not in nearly as good shape.)" Again, you were playing against newbies with an attitude. Felt good, didn't it... Yes. Yes it did. Very good. "Bad things happen to "snipers" who use their ghillie to make themselves bullet-proof." While in the dead zone after the game, I hope you walked by them and had the good sense to stop and just smile... There may have been some minor gloating.

...

I wear tie-dye.

i knew this color blind kid and he can pick out anyone in a ghillie from 100+ feet. this means that as long as i have him in my group there are no lucky shots from campers.

Honestly the best you can wear is grey. It blends to all terrain well enough.

Urban-coloured camoflague is perfect for most areas besides the 9th dimension.